THE WESTERN MEDITERR"..!':EAN KINGDOM l:!00-1!>00The sense that these were stirring times in which God
was judging the crowned heads of Europe was expressed in
apocalyptic literature portraying the War of the Vespers and
other contemporary conflicts as the wars of Gog and Magog.
Christian missionaries emphasised the need to convert the
Jews and Muslims to their faith, and new methods were
adopted to win over non-Christians, including the close study
of the religious texts of Judaism and Islam. Catalan conquests
and commerce had enlarged the day-to-day contact between
Christians and Muslims, though Ramon Llull was in many
respects an exceptional case of someone who made an effort
to read and understand Islamic texts. Even so, the message
of his work was clear: that the best way to know and love God
was through his own religion. On the frontier, awareness of
religious differences remained sharp, and the question how
to deal with those subjects who persisted in their 'obstinacy'
by denying Christianity remained an issue at the courts of
the Mediterranean monarchs.